There’s two ways to look at Million Dollar Baby. On the one hand you have a film which promotes female boxing, offers the American dream along with a balance of tragedy, and a controversial ending which had Americans up in arms because choice in death, even in the face of suffering, is considered wrong, and therefore opens a debate.
On the other hand, you have a predictably lazy film production that offers a script that could be written on the back of a matchbox, with unengaging characters, and is a film mainly about two losers who add a third member to their club of boxing dunces. This view is perhaps a bit harsh, but it’s valid nonetheless, as it’s something that did cross my mind a good few times.
My personal opinion having finally got around to watching it, is that it very much deserved the superficial, meaningless awards it received since few other films were really offering anything other than even more brainless fodder. Million Dollar Baby at least tries to tell a story of sorts, about life not always handing you the cards you hope it will deal you. At the same time, the acting is so below par what is expected from the likes of Clint Eastwood who’s turning into quite the American relic; an astoundingly piss poor acting performance from Morgan Freeman who’s relegated to a janitor, and frankly with that sort of performance that might be a possible career option; to the lifeless Hilary Swank, boob job and all, who offers a glimpse of potential but just cannot act.
Swank was praised for her performance for being a vegetable. That is a patient who has lost mobility. I can’t imagine it takes a lot of skill to act like an invalid. I do that every morning as I try to wake up, but I don’t see my Oscar nomination anywhere. Her acting talents leave a lot to be desired. The film feels like a sequel to The New Karate Kid, but replace the Karate with Boxing and Dunn (Eastwood) with Miyagi and you’re almost there. It’s shocking, but Swank seems to have carried forward her acting performance, by firmly deciding not to improve on it.
Eastwood’s performance is below average, but he still swaggers around, providing the usual care-free yet sympathetic role he’s so often been associated with as of late. He’ll help, but he expects a shag out of it. Although perhaps not as crude. So it is that Dunn, played by Eastwood, and Eddie Dupris (Freeman) take it upon themselves to train a potential boxing champion in the form of Maggie Fitzgerald (Swank). You can guess the rest, even up to the tragedy that befalls the gang of washouts when they’re all so close to championship victory, they can almost taste it. From there on the film turns saccharin, with some moments of spite and the ugliness of the hillbilly/rednecks that fit their role as trailer trash appropriately.
Swank plays the eager beaver with energy, but lacking the ability to perform with conviction. She’s rough and ready, but that seems more a natural trait than part of the character. There are probably several reason why Swank was chosen, and one of those would probably be that of conviction had a prettier face been chosen. It wouldn’t work, but I think they’ve still got it wrong. The story is all right, even if it lacks anything particularly new (replace female with male and you’ve already got an unoriginal piece), but keeps the train moving along with a fair pace that’s neither dragging nor a speed demon.
In terms of boxing, this is perhaps where the film scores high for me. It was, for the most part, very entertaining and convincing enough, with the crunches, the beatings and so on. It’s all very bloody, and highly entertaining, keeping in with the violence of the sport which is fairly accurately dipicted. No doubt the film will spur on a new generation of trailer trash to become World Champion boxers, and why not?
Towards the latter end of the film, the performance to increase a notch, particularly from Eastwood, with Swank limited to being in a vegetative state. Freeman narrates throughout the film, which will either enhance the movie experience for you, or completely and utterly grind your skull to dust. It’s intrusive, annoying, and for me did little more than increase the already useless contribution of Freeman to very close to unbearable.
It’s hard for any film to live up to their hype. Million Dollar Baby doesn’t do well, and indeed falls far short of its hype. Is it Oscar winning material? That depends on whether you consider the Oscar having any actual merit, aside from the industrial slap on the back and being awarded by fat cats that can be persuaded by money as well as on screen performances. The biggest marketing budget seems capable of success too. Regardless of the Oscars bestowed upon the film, there’s a few other films of recent years that equally don’t deserve such accolades. Putting Million Dollar Baby side by side with such successes perhaps raises the bar for Eastwood’s film higher than that of previous winners.
Had the film been released a couple of decades ago, it might have been considered cutting edge, but now it’s simply archaic and lacking quality. It’s not a special film by any stretch, either by performance or by plot. Aside from not living up to its praise, Million Dollar Baby’s other flaws simply place this above average.
Verdict: Another case of “don’t believe the hype”. Woeful acting, depressing leads offering a huge disappointment